NATO plans to build satellite links as backups to undersea cables — recent cable damage incidents shine spotlight on Project HEIST

A satellite
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Because of the increasing number of undersea cable disruptions happening in the past couple of years, NATO is building on a system that will locate damage to undersea cables with an accuracy of one meter and find more routes that data can take if a disruption does occur in a particular line. This project will be called HEIST, says the IEEE in a report, which stands for Hybrid Space-Submarine Architecture Ensuring Infosec of Telecommunications.

The value of transactions transmitted through undersea cables exceeds $10 trillion in total, with Henric Johnson, the vice-chancellor of Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) and HEIST testbed coordinator, saying, “What we’re talking about now is critical infrastructure in the society.” BTH, located in Karlskrona, near the southern coast of Sweden, is one of the partners in the HEIST program. Engineers will work there to develop smart systems that allow cable breaks to be quickly located and develop protocols to quickly and automatically reroute the affected data to satellites.

“We have had incidents of cables that have been sabotaged between Sweden, Estonia, and Finland,” added Johnson. “So those incidents are, for us, a reality.”

Although it may seem that undersea cables are tough infrastructure because of the environment they’re in, these intercontinental connections are very fragile. That’s because these cables, about the thickness of a garden hose, lie on the seafloor instead of being buried underneath. Anything dragging on the ocean floor—a sea creature, a loose anchor, or a submarine—could easily damage or even sever these communications cables.

Jowi Morales
Contributing Writer

Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.

  • bit_user
    LOL, I can just see it now: instead of anchor drags, a chunk of space debris mysteriously appears directly within the orbit of one of these satellites.

    Then, I also have to wonder about the potential for attacks via ground-based (or in-orbit) energy weapons, although attribution would hopefully be a bit easier in that case. The path for retaliation is also very straight-forward (knock out one of their satellites), which is perhaps why this isn't (yet) a "thing".

    I think the advantage of something like Starlink is the sheer number of satellites. However, without a commercial funding model, I think it'd be impractical to maintain such a large fleet. The downside of depending on a private network is, of course, the owner might be rather temperamental and have questionable loyalty or allegiances.
    Reply
  • SomeoneElse23
    This is why the space force exists.

    Nations have realized they depend a lot on what's up there...
    Reply
  • bit_user
    SomeoneElse23 said:
    This is why the space force exists.

    Nations have realized they depend a lot on what's up there...
    That's not a new priority. It just fell mostly under the jurisdiction of the Air Force, previously. Space Force just took stuff we already did and put it into its own branch.
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    bit_user said:
    That's not a new priority. It just fell mostly under the jurisdiction of the Air Force, previously. Space Force just took stuff we already did and put it into its own branch.
    There is/was enough specialized stuff for Space to be split off from Air Force.
    Just like splitting the Air Force off from the Army Air Corps back in '47.


    In addition, there was a lot of jostling between the Navy, Army, AF, as to who was going to control all the 'space stuff'.
    Screw it...make it its own thing.

    I know several people who transitioned from Air Force to Space Force.
    Reply
  • PRM88
    Which genius turned "Hybrid Space-Submarine Architecture Ensuring Infosec of Telecommunications" into HEIST?
    Reply
  • Eximo
    Because HSSAEIT sounds like a sneeze?

    Also probably not necessarily in English to start with, so the letter ordering may be different.
    Reply
  • ex_bubblehead
    PRM88 said:
    Which genius turned "Hybrid Space-Submarine Architecture Ensuring Infosec of Telecommunications" into HEIST?
    Well it's far better than "Space-Submarine Hybrid Architecture Ensuring Infosec of Telecommunications" S....... :D
    Reply
  • Eximo
    ex_bubblehead said:
    Well it's far better than "Space-Submarine Hybrid Architecture Ensuring Infosec of Telecommunications" S....... :D
    Although placing the call to activate it would certainly be the silver lining.
    Reply
  • ex_bubblehead
    Eximo said:
    Although placing the call to activate it would certainly be the silver lining.
    :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO: :ROFLMAO:
    Reply
  • USAFRet
    ex_bubblehead said:
    Well it's far better than "Space-Submarine Hybrid Architecture Ensuring Infosec of Telecommunications" S....... :D
    But, they'd first need to go through the Special High Intensity Training.
    Reply